It's been a nice week this week, with the weather being fantastic, and the lads being boosted by the midweek result up at Lancaster, there is a new feeling of optimism around the City again, just days after we were all feeling miserable after the match against Radcliffe, me more so perhaps as some kind soul decided to scrape their car across mine, well I say mine, it was actually Mrs B's car that got scratched - typical hey?
Anyway, back to the footie again, and the big match tomorrow - the last home league game of the season, it doesn't seem five minutes since they were stepping out against Trafford, but here we are, with a chance of finishing with a win and leave everyone on a high point - there is a strange familiarity to that Trafford game, with the Junior Blues all set to provide the team with a guard of honour tomorrow, just as they did back in September, and Colin Murray has been back in touch, just as he was in September!
We did of course want to sign off at the Exacta with a win to clinch or already celebrate the title, but that wasn't to be, so we're instead still fighting for the title with Skelmersdale, why us hey, why oh why are we the only club in the land to be over 90 points and scored over 100 goals this season to still be in a position where we cannot uncork that Champagne?
Reason is of course, Skem's major winning run that saw them win 13 out of 15 games, before they travelled to Lancaster, knowing that a win over the Dolly Blues would take them 2 points ahead of us but all on level games, and maybe that pressure started to tell on United, as they lost to a last minute goal - what a new hero Lancaster's Alex Johnson now is with the Chester faithful, and I'm sure he'll get a bottle of champagne himself if that turns out to be the difference come next Friday!
It's going to be a nervous time, but we're confident that we can stay focused enough to see this through, and win the title, we're all craving it so much that to not get there would be so disappointing - but we would of course not be out of it knowing we'd have the play offs at home - but let's not even consider that yet hey?
The time is now for the lads to step up and be counted, 3 wins and it's ours, it's as simple as that - you can't help feeling that a win tomorrow would put us in great shape for Monday's trip to Fylde, and with a bit of luck Curzon Ashton can put one over Skem tomorrow too, and give us the chance of winning it on Monday - that would be great.
Media wise it's been an interesting week. I was left unimpressed with the Chester Leader comments that were attributed to Neil, saying he was "finding it hard to stay positive" and on Tuesday the comments were "If I'm brutally honest with myself, I don't know what to do next" - these comments were at the end of a 10 minute interview, where Neil was insinuating that he hadn't thought yet about the next game, as it was too soon to even think about given what happened at Radcliffe.
Neil was obviously down after the 2-2 scoreline last week, we all were, but he could easily have called an end to that interview, but didn't, and maybe he paid the consequences with the last questions from a tiring day being turned against him. I registered my disappointment with the Leader about those comments, and said to them in a phone call that it was about time they nailed their colours to the mast and got behind us rather than just doing interviews, and turning comments around.
I was pleased therefore to see today's paper, whereby they sort of did that, but still not really - if you see what I mean.
The Chronicle have been exceptional in their coverage, and continue to back the club - and that is really appreciated by everyone at Chester FC - even when times are hard, they do their level best to get behind us for the next game.
I had a conversation with Colin Murray earlier today, and asked him to big up our game tomorrow against Bamber Bridge, and he understood the nerves our lads were displaying, but still reckons we'll go up - great to hear.
Nerves are definitely coming into play, and on Thursday night at training, the club had a sports psychologist in attendance, to help show the lads what great things they've done this season, and how they CAN cross the line as Champions - the players seemed to appreciate what was going on, and hopefully we'll see a really positive show tomorrow from the boys.
Also at training the other night was Grenville Millington, who had offered help to coach our goalkeepers, knowing how lonely it can be when keepers make mistakes, and I'm pleased to say Judgey was delighted with the training help on offer, again hopefully we'll see Judgey full of confidence again, if he is the main in between the sticks tomorrow.
We've made tomorrow a "Flag Day" and will be ramping up the atmosphere as much as possible to fill the place with positivity ahead of the game. We just want everyone to be right behind the boys as we go into our final game.
Well that's it for tonight, let's hope that this time tomorrow we'll all be talking about some great goals from the men in blue & white, and maybe the fact that we're only 3 points from winning the title.
Come on you Blues!!!
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